Wednesday, March 16, 2016

What Now?

Well, my guy is out. Marco Rubio suspended his campaign
yesterday in what can only be called a humiliating loss to Donald Trump in his
home state of Florida. This is truly a shame. Under normal circumstance Rubio
would have been a shoe-in. He had all the ingredients. He’s smart; He’s young; He
has a young family; he is telegenic; he has ethnic appeal to
Hispanics; his policies are conservative but still mainstream enough to not
repel moderates; his values - guided by his faith reflect those of most
Americans; he has foreign policy experience gained as a member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee; and is certainly the most pro Israel candidate
running - which for me at least was a major plus!

He was in other words THE alternative to Hillary
Clinton - the ultimate insider who has taken a major left turn in response to
the unexpected success of her socialist opponent in the Democratic primaries. At this point she sounds more
liberal than Obama!

Alas, the Trump machine just steam rolled right over Rubio.
I’m not sure he ever had a chance in today’s political climate. He did however
have some pretty bad missteps – that contributed to his demise.

The first was his bad performance in an early debate where
he kept repeating the same talking points in response to moderator questions. Talking points which had little if anything to do with the questions asked. He kept repeating them - over and over. Governor Christie got the best of him that night in a big
way. He kept pointing it out making Rubio look really bad. Although he did have
a brief recovery from that, it didn’t last very long.

The second thing, which in my view was the final blow to his
campaign, is when he got in the gutter with Trump. In the course of that
- he made an off-color joke about him, which was repeated in the media
over and over again. With that - his candidacy was essentially over. Even though he later
admitted it was mistake to do that, it was too late by then. The damage was done. It was pretty much downhill all the way after that.

I remain shocked by all of this. It doesn’t matter what is
thrown at him - Donald Trump’s support keeps growing - getting stronger by the
day. He has been shown to be a fraud, and a bully. He is vulgar. He smears his opponents
– using the slightest innuendo from a tweet as though it were a hard proven fact. He insults Hispanics and
women, He insults Muslims. He gets support from both David Duke and Louis
Farrakhan, 2 polar opposite anti-Semites; he has alienated world leaders, makes
outrageous promises he knows he can’t keep. And has said he would be ‘even-handed’
in his approach to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. That word is seen my most
experts in the Middle East as code for being pro Palestinian. Worst of all, he
incites violence in his followers, and in his detractors.

And yet the more he does those things, the more support
he gets. What kind of a country are we living in?!

I said in a recent post that his real persona is probably not
what we are seeing now. But it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the persona
he projects is what seems to motivate his supporters. That’s the scary part. He’s
tapped into an anger that few people realized was there. At least not to such
an extent. I don’t think even Trump realized it when he kicked off his
campaign. But he sure realizes it now. And he’s capitalizing on it to major success.

The anger is there on both sides of the political aisle,
That’s why Berine Sanders, a socialist, is making a strong showing against
Clinton. People are angry. In any other year, a Bernie Sanders candidacy would
have been a joke. I don’t hear anybody laughing.

Trump lost Ohio. That may slow down his momentum. Which means
there is a glimmer of hope that he will not get enough delegates in the primaries
to assure his nomination at the Republican National Convention. If I understand
how these things work, if candidate is not nominated on the first ballot,
delegates are free to vote for whomever they choose.

If that happens. I don’t see Trump getting the nomination.
Everyone in the Republican party hates him. I think even supporters like
Christie hate him. They just saw the handwriting on the wall early and wanted
to hop on the winning bandwagon.

In the unlikely event that this does happen, there is one
candidate that they could choose that would have a decent chance at beating
Mrs. Clinton. I’m just not sure he would accept the nomination if it were
offered. But if there is a contested convention, I hope he takes it - if offered.
His name is Paul Ryan, current Speaker of the House of Representatives.

By all accounts, Paul Ryan is an honorable man that is well
liked on both sides of the political aisle. Like Rubio, his conservative values
are faith based which I believe reflect the values of most Americans. And like
Rubio he’s young and he’s smart; His expertice on on the economy is acknowledged
even by his opponents. This is a man I would vote for in a heartbeat. And I
think most Americans would too. He has no negatives. Mrs. Clinton has many.

Back to reality. Although polls show Clinton beating Trump
in the general election, I am not so sure about that. Nothing is guaranteed in
the next election. Polls don’t always tell you the story. Ask Michigan. Strange
as this may sound, I would not be surprised if some of Sanders voters would turn
to Trump instead of Clinton. Just as a protest vote against the status quo
which Clinton certainly represents. Ideology be damned!

The two candidates most likely to run for President have the
highest negatives of any other candidate that ever ran for President. True,
both Clinton and Trump have a lot of support. But they also generate an almost visceral hate among many those
who did not vote for them. There are a lot of people like me that are going to
vote for the lesser of two evils.

For me, I will have to hold my nose and vote for Clinton. As
bad as her attitude is… and as much as she will continue the bad policies of
her predecessor – both economic and foreign… and as much as her Supreme Court nominations
will be disastrous for those of us who hold traditional values dear, this
country cannot afford a man like Trump to lead our country. He is an embarrassment.
He’s not going to make America great again. He will drive our reputation into
the ground. If he hasn’t done that already.

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About Me

My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.